Ladies Choice

Hidden Desires Of Sought-After Sisters

A newlywed jock in Kansas City
Thought she was finally sittin' pretty
Then her ratings went down
Now she's got to leave town
Another station, another town with no pity

Whether you're male or female, if you stay in this business long enough you can expect to be laid off, transferred or terminated. It just one of those things that goes with the gig. If you're extremely lucky you will simply be transferred or asked to do another shift or take on some additional duties. More often than not, unfortunately, you will be terminated and simply told, "We're going in another direction." Yeah, right. And exactly what direction is that? More often than not, it's the same direction, just with fewer people.

Certainly no one can deny the past few years of radio downsizing are the major reasons for the current employment crises in our industries, which affects both men and women. What happened was a lot of seasoned specialized broadcasters were trapped in an overall stagnation of radio at a time when it needed to be more proactive in improving itself in response to listeners migrating to other audio forms. As Urban-formatted stations have grown and matured, so have many of the attitudes of the past ... and each year finds more and more women achieving positions of power and influence.

In researching this editorial I found that usually when stations are looking to reduce costs and go from live to syndicated or voicetracking, women are often replaced by males. This is true for all formats, including Urban. So what difference does that make, you ask? These syndicated or voicetracked males are often much less engaging, obviously not local and sometimes offend the females in the audience with their banter. So when the ratings dip maybe you need to examine the underlying, not-so-obvious reasons why.

Even if you play the same records, do the same hooks and everything that was being done when the woman held the shift, it's just not the same. The key word here is "engage." Radio still needs to be a personal, one-on-one experience. Women want a radio station that is personal, relevant and enables them to connect emotionally. As a programmer, are you making your content between the jams relevant to females so that they can engage in it?

Hip-Hop Is Part Of The Music That Drives Females To The Format

In today's busy, hurry-up world, Urban music stations have to be music-intensive to be successful with female diary-keepers or meter wearers. And although they are very attracted to newer songs, Urban female listeners also want favorite older songs. More than half (56%) of those surveyed in a recent study said they "strongly agree" that their favorite stations should identify songs and artists more than they do now.

Today's Urban female listener, who's really into her music, wants to hear those huge hits that a lot of Urban AC stations wait too long to play. If there's a huge hit you're not playing, you're inviting people to go to the competition. There's a large group of female listeners who surf for their favorite new jams. If you're in an active music environment and not playing a song that's truly exciting your female audience, then what you're not playing is indeed hurting you. Knowing this and acting on it is what separates the winners from the losers. Maybe it will make programmers use their ears and minds and really program again ... and not simply rely on callout research.

Today's females have their own quirks and cultures. Some smart Urban programmers are just beginning to recognize this and target these much sought-after sisters, born between 1965 and 1976, as a separate demographic group. What happens when today's 12-24s become tomorrow's 25-49 demographic? Since hip-hop is a favorite of so many young female listeners, the notion that all women want to hear are romantic ballads is simply not true. Several recent studies have shown what this music means today and how it might shape the future of many formats.

In a recent national study of 12-24-year-old females, several different types of music were played and the respondents were asked how often they listened to it. Hip-hop and rap (combined for purposes of this survey into one category) basically blew away any other music type. Granted, this was a late summer survey, but even so, just under half of the group said that they listen to hip-hop and rap frequently (51%). The next closest type was pure R&B at 35%.

Hip-hop and rap proved to be equally popular with young women and young men. It was only slightly more popular with 12-17 year-olds than with 18-24 year-olds. While they are much more popular with African-Americans and Hispanics, hip-hop and rap are still by far the most popular musical genres for white teens aged 12-24.

These kinds of findings have been consistent in almost every local market we looked at. The potential for impact is obvious and, remember, if yours is a PPM market, not only is Arbitron measuring 12-17-year-olds, they are also counting sub-teens 6-12. If today's young females aren't being raised on hip-hop and R&B, they are being exposed to it in various forms in their life.

There are a couple important aspects of hip-hop that programmers need to understand. First, while the taste for hip-hop is almost entirely isolated below the age of 25, it extends right into the young adult demo of 25-49. What does that mean? Just this: In dozens of studies in various market sizes and ethnic compositions, there is essentially a break somewhere around the age of 25.

In general, the under-25 group has a strong affinity for hip-hop, whereas over that age, support declines somewhat on some songs and some artists. So in this sense, we have a stronger musical generation gap today. Now does this mean that if you want your station to have any appeal to most people over the age of 25, you are compelled to shy away from hip-hop? No, it simply means that female listeners like the kind of energy that popular hip-hop provides. Crossover hip-hop songs have huge appeal for female listeners. Artists such as Ne-Yo, Drake and Nicki Minaj are big favorites. If you can put a balanced, dayparted mix together that includes hip-hop, you can score big female numbers, even if you are an Urban AC station. It may be a little tougher to do, but it is definitely worth the effort.

In the same way stations can't rely on increasing their market share by simply blindly catering to their aging 25-54 year-olds, research indicates the next wave of females entering this demo will have been inspired and influenced by hip-hop. They are going to want to hear jams performed by, inspired and influenced by hip-hop on their favorite station. We are already starting to see this dichotomy in numerous studies.

Women Love Relationships

Give the females in your market a chance to have a relationship with your station. Make what you offer on-air relevant, so they can engage it. Sharp programmers should make females their primary P1 target, particularly in markets measured by the PPM. We all have our theories about P1 listening. P1 listening is the percentage of cume that listens to one station more than any other. Dividing this segment of the audience into preference levels will also help in understanding how listeners are using the station.

Some stations we know only test their female P1 listeners when doing callout, while others open it up, only making cume a requirement to get into weekly callout. While numbers regarding female P1 listeners have been tossed around for years, the results of recent studies we've seen point out that the majority of quarter-hours for Urban stations are still coming from your P1 female listeners and, as expected, fluctuate from format to format.

The object of the ratings game is still to collect more quarter-hours than anyone else. Hence, the P1 female listener is most likely to contribute more quarter-hours to the station. So the larger the percentage of the audience that qualifies as P1, the more quarter-hours of listening will be accumulated, assuming a consistent cume.

Here are some facts that can't be ignored: Women are powerful. They comprise 51% of the population and purchase 83% of all goods and services that enter our households. Building relationships with them is all about content and engagement - beyond the music. For programmers, this distinct gender difference is the driving force in grabbing and growing your female audience.

Do Women Like Listening To Other Women?

The answer to that question is women don't like listening to bad women personalities any more than they like listening to bad male jocks. So many females have been used as sidekicks, particularly on morning shows. And they frequently come off as stupid, giggly stereotypes, so many people think of that image when they think of female deejays. I believe this myth stems from negative reactions women have about the sidekick role some females have so often been forced to play.

How about two female jocks back-to-back? What are the risks? Are there risks? Again, it depends on the jock, the market and the station. In putting together a talent lineup, I always tend to separate the staff according to their own textures and personalities, not gender. I also don't believe gender really matters. And when it does, it's probably a holdover from the old days and was probably not true even back then. It was often an excuse made up by some male managers for not putting women on the air. Unfortunately today, there aren't as many women interested in being on the radio as men; therefore you don't have as large a talent pool to draw from.

For women, not only is there is a dichotomy between the culture and the workplace. For a long time there's been this stereotype that either you're ugly and smart or cute and not suited for careers in math, science or engineering. Thirty years ago, women made up just 3 % of science and engineering jobs. Now they make up about 20%. Women earn 56 % of the degrees on those fields. Today's women are members of the first generation to have been truly reared on technology. We haven't broken out African-American women separately for the purpose of this study, but rest assured they are included.

Certainly no one can deny the past few years of radio downsizing are the major reasons for the current employment crises in our industries, which affect both men and women. What happened was a lot of seasoned specialized broadcasters were trapped with an overall stagnation of radio at a time when it needed to be more proactive in improving itself in response to listeners migrating to other audio forms.

Trailing Spouses

Now let's step away from the things that would bring females to the radio and instead, for a moment, look at what is happening not just to females, but to individuals, couples and families.

Let's take a typical situation with which we're all probably familiar. You're an on- air program director, who in spite of strong ratings, gets replaced by a voicetracker. So now what? Well, if you're young and single you could always move back in with your parents. But that's a transition plan that's probably last on your list and one that's nearly impossible if you're married with children.

When Barbara Johnson got a sales gig with a bank in the spring, she felt certain her husband, who was been a big-time air personality, PD and MD, could quickly find a job in a new market. She and their two young children moved from the South while he started a long-distance job hunt. Nine months later, he's still looking, flying in to see his family on weekends, compliments of her parents, who want to see them stay together.

It's an all-too-familiar story and a rough one. The expenses of two households, the frustration of his job hunt and the stress of bringing young children to a new city without their father can really take its toll.

One colleague told Barbara her husband had switched careers and finally had to settle for a lower-paying job after a year of unemployment. But her husband wasn't in radio. In some situations, the stress is simply too much. The marriage ends in divorce or the husbands just aren't in the work force at all.

Women now make up over 16% of all transferees. That's triple the level just 10 years ago. The numbers are far higher in businesses such as banking and computers. They remained somewhat stable in the radio industry up until a few years ago, then the bottom fell out. The national average among radio personalities and programmers is much lower, but unemployment and transfers still occur quite frequently.

I personally know of several former PDs/air personalities who thought if they were willing to adjust, be more flexible and even take less money, they would be more attractive to employers. Some said they could not only work Urban formats, but Rhythmic, Top 40, AC and even Rock. Why, they'd even do news and run the board if they had to. Unfortunately there were few openings and often no immediate hope of any part-time positions.

Even when the woman's job pays enough for the family to live on, unemployment can be particularly hard on a man, say many experts. As children we were taught, "You're supposed to have a job all the time." It's really a blow and men tend to take it harder. Joining a support group can help a little. But the problem is that most of the people in those groups have ordinary jobs, tend to lead ordinary lives and we somehow feel even when they try their best, they simply can't relate. After all, we're in radio. And radio is really show business.

Finally, even though it's easier to take someone else's word for it, when it comes to females, do your own research. Go beyond the callout and auditorium tests your company or station may provide. It means looking at actual reference sources and not simply going to all the bookmarked links on your browser. The process is going to make you a better programmer and could just get your creative juices flowing and accelerate your anxiety-generating mechanisms.

Word!